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A26
body & soul
Guardian www.guardian.co.tt Tuesday, September 22, 2015
What would it take to
persuade you to exer-
cise?
A desire to lose weight
or improve your figure?
To keep heart disease,
cancer or diabetes at bay?
To lower your blood pres-
sure or cholesterol? To
protect your bones? To
live to a healthy old age?
You d think any of
those reasons would be
sufficient to get exercis-
ing, but scores of studies
have shown otherwise. It
seems that public health
experts, doctors and exer-
cise devotees have been
using ineffective tactics
to entice sedentary people
to become, and remain,
physically active.
For decades, people
have been bombarded
with messages that reg-
ular exercise is necessary
to lose weight, prevent
serious disease and foster
healthy aging. And yes,
most people say they
value these goals. Yet a
vast majority fail to swal-
low the "exercise pill."
Now research by psy-
chologists strongly sug-
gests it s time to stop
thinking of future health,
weight loss and body
image as motivators for
exercise. Instead, they
recommend a strategy
marketers use to sell
products: portray physical
activity as a way to
enhance current well-
being and happiness.
"We need to make
exercise relevant to peo-
ple s daily lives," Michelle
Segar, a research inves-
tigator at the Institute for
Research on Women and
Gender at the University
of Michigan, said in an
interview. "Everyone s
schedule is packed with
nonstop to-do s. We can
only fit in what s essen-
tial."
Dr Segar is among the
experts who believe that
people will not commit
to exercise if they see its
benefits as distant or the-
oretical. "It has to be por-
trayed as a compelling
behaviour that can ben-
efit us today," she said.
Dr Segar is urging that
experts stop framing
moderate exercise as a
medical prescription that
requires 150 minutes of
aerobic effort each week.
Instead, public health
officials must begin to
address "the emotional
hooks that make it essen-
tial for people to fit it into
their hectic lives."
"Immediate rewards
are more motivating than
distant ones," she added.
"Feeling happy and less
stressed is more motivat-
ing than not getting heart
disease or cancer, maybe,
someday in the future."
In a study of 252 office
workers, David Ingledew
and David Markland, psy-
chologists at the Univer-
sity of Wales, found that
while many began to
exercise as way to lose
weight and improve their
appearance, these moti-
vations did not keep them
exercising in the long
term. "The well-being
and enjoyment benefits
of exercise should be
emphasised," the
researchers concluded.
Dr Segar put it this
way: "Physical activity is
an elixir of life, but we re
not teaching people that.
We re telling them it s a
pill to take or a punish-
ment for bad numbers on
the scale. Sustaining
physical activity is a
motivational and emo-
tional issue, not a medical
one."
Other studies have
shown that what gets
people off their duffs and
keeps them moving
depends on age, gender,
life circumstances and
even ethnicity. For those
of college age, for exam-
ple, physical attractive-
ness typically heads the
list of reasons to begin
exercising, although what
keeps them going seems
to be the stress relief that
a regular exercise pro-
gramme provides.
The elderly, on the
other hand, may get
started because of health
concerns. But often what
keeps them exercising are
the friendships, sense of
community and cama-
raderie that may other-
wise be missing from
their lives.
In a recent study of
1,690 overweight or
obese middle-aged men
and women, Dr Segar
found that enhancing
daily well-being was the
most influential factor for
the women in the study.
Many start exercising
because they want to lose
weight. But very often
they abandon exercise
when the expected
pounds fail to fall off.
Study after study has
found that, without
major changes in eating
habits, increasing physical
activity is only somewhat
effective for losing
weight, though it helps
people maintain weight
loss.
For
example,
researchers in Brisbane,
Australia, and in Leeds,
England, studied 58
sedentary overweight or
obese men and women
who participated in a
closely monitored 12-
week aerobic exercise
programme. Weight loss
was minimal, but
nonetheless the partici-
pants waistlines shrunk,
their blood pressure and
resting heart rate
dropped, and their aer-
obic capacity and mood
improved. (NYT)
Exercise to feel good
YOUR DAILY HEALTH
News and Advice
A desire to lose
weight or improve
your figure.